1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an application that allows a user to obtain an item and to a technology related thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a wide variety of game software has been introduced. As one of measures for providing motivation for the user to continue to play, a possible option is to commend the degree of achievement when the user achieves various missions in a game. In this case, if it is possible to present the total degree of achievement for various games to the user and/or to allow the user to compete for the degree of achievement with another user instead of commending the achievement only in a closed world of a single game, the attractiveness of a game system will increase, and the user will be given meaning to play until the end. As such, achievement management systems are proposed that allows a user to acquire items when the user achieves missions and derive the level of the user based on points obtained according to acquisition of the items (Patent document No. 1).
[Patent document No. 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-5255
While various types of game software have been developed, game makers have been making efforts to introduce new games to users by distributing free trial-version software in addition to product advertisement by TV commercials and the like. In recent years, game devices have been introduced that allow game software to be stored in a large-capacity memory device such as a hard disk so as to enjoy installed games without a game disk. In such game devices, users can also download game software from a virtual game shop via the Internet. Thus, efforts have been also made toward acquisition of new users by distributing trial-version software from the virtual game shop.
In a system proposed in Patent document No. 1, a user may complete a mission and acquire an item when playing trial-version software. In this case, since the software is only trial-version software, it is not fair to users who have purchased product-version software to incorporate the acquired item in points that represent the level of a user. This is thus not preferred. However, since the acquired item is a result of game play even though the software is a trial version, it is preferred to be able to notify the user of the acquisition of the item. It is also preferred to present to the user at the same time that the acquisition did not occur in the product-version software. It is necessary to properly manage item acquisition information in order to achieve such a process.